Lafayette_Courtier to Crown Fugitive, 1757-1777

by S. P. Grogan

  With such interesting financial balance sheets to speak well of him, the wealthiest orphan in France was garnering high public interest, a national matter of some import as a tantalizing bauble, so considered the Duc d’Ayen. He affirmed his own crafting to the best need, wealth to be attached to one of his daughters, and in consequence the Noialles would supply family honor and prestige to cement the boy’s future and a wife to provide an endurable legacy by conception.

  Beyond the goal of bloodlines and financial accumulation, the Duc d’Ayen cared little to know more about what the boy was about, his desires or ambitions. Certainly the child could play at soldier when away and look the part of a Noailles son-in-law when at court. Little else mattered. Marital happiness would not necessarily be required to be part of this equation, thus acceptance as the norm why mistresses and lovers were not thought on as an evil biblical sin within the nobility.

  Here, marriages were to be negotiated like treaties with indentured clauses on rank and dowry, where one must speak in obeisance, of duty to king, to family. In France, a marriage contract never found ink or paper to ratify the notion of ‘love’. And as to this young noble, both a titled marquis and baron, who looked uncomfortable within his own skin, the Duc D’Ayen knew he could give guidance if not control to this boy’s future, especially, as he thought, if he is my son-in-law.

  D’Ayen’s mind now set to purpose and he smiled at the Comte de La Rivière.

  “I think, sir, we may have business to conduct.”

  Mousquetaires du roi — Grey and Black Musketeer

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  18.

  GILBERT, AS HE RODE back to the regimental barracks to report the King’s pleasure...of nothing for the musketeers to accomplish...gave only what a young person might quickly glean of his emotions. Bittersweet happiness. He had seen the Comte de la Riviére in attendance upon the King and felt the pleasure to be able to demonstrate his presence as a Black Musketeer, his original enlistment having been handled by his grandfather, more as a casual afterthought to busy the boy towards some vague notion of a career in soldiering. Yes, that made him happy, but everything else in his world tasted in his mouth as stale bread. Can one deal with the consequence of a loss of a mother? He loved her, no doubt, but had seen her rarely within the Luxemburg apartments. His grandfather who supposedly died of a broken heart upon hearing of his daughter’s death, Gilbert had seen only twice. But it was news of Grandmother La Fayette and her passing, only one month ago, right after he had left Auvergne and the Chateaux Chavianiac that gave him the most distress. She had been a guide and a teacher and he had no one to turn to, so he thought, in filling this gap in lost practical wisdom.

  Gilbert had returned to Paris at the end of the summer to find the world of schooling and military training whirling forward and he could fill these moments, yet there existed in his understanding on how empty he felt, bereft of family and comradeship, and to temper such loneliness he raised mental drawbridges to protect his feelings, and people of general acquaintance thereby called him morose or reserved, aloof, unremarkable, of little social interest, except, yes, he was wealthy, and therefore a project for others to manipulate. He found himself alone and belittled by the world at large. Adrift, he sought purpose.

  “Adrianne is but twelve years old! This must not be!” Henriette Anne Louise d’Aguesseau Noailles, the Duchess of Noailles, Princess of Tingry, let her feelings be known in no uncertain terms. She had never been considered a subservient wife which many times would vex her husband and drive him from their house into his laboratory over the stables or to the gaming tables, or into the arms of whichever consoling mistress was favored at the time. Stakes now were higher than a mere throw of the die or warm pillowing breasts.

  “Besides,” the Duchess spoke with emotion, “He is a boy with too much money. I shan’t see my daughter marry into a probable wastrel life in which either she shall be unhappy with his licentious behavior or poor Adrienne led into corruption by those taking advantage of her own accounts.”

  The Duc, amazed that his wife would find inherited wealth evil let the rant run its course, before getting a word in.

  “He will not come into most of his property until he becomes of age, at twenty five years. And he has scribes who oversee his finances and collect the rents from his tenants. And I hear his mother taught him court etiquette and only last year his aunt on his mother’s side, the Comtesse de Lusignems, properly saw that the Marquis made his formal presentation to the King and court.”

  Henriette would not back down from her displeasure for such a match. Two children they both were! Though indeed such youth at twelve, or younger, was acceptable in many alliances and arranged marriages. For her some might find twenty two years as being too old as when she married Jean de Noialles, but for her second oldest daughter at twelve years, in her mind, ran the fearful risk of Adrienne not being strong enough to bear children. And a poor childbirth in these times was usually fatal. The Duchess knew this so well. She had contracted smallpox, as her scourged face attested to (scars buried behind perfumed white powder) and in the aftermath of that illness had lost her baby boy. In that saddened memory she sought a different tack of disagreement.

  “I hear he is to make a career of the army. Shall Adrienne become a widow while barely in her womanhood? His own father slaughtered at 25, only two years married. If he is to wed Adrienne and if I am to take him in and treat him as my son, you know, my dear husband, I have lost already one child, shall I then lose another? What many tragedies do you feel I can bear?”

  The Duc d’Ayen knew he could not win the immediate argument but would have to wear her down, employing all his court-honed intrigue of flattery and guile but for the short term the coldness of his plans and her immediate refusal brought a chill upon their household, sensed by all the children, most of all Adrienne, so comfortable in a family surrounded with happiness and gaiety, she found herself bewildered. In a small delicate hand she recorded these confused thoughts in her diary. Ma pere and mere are not speaking, to the ill, I cannot learn.

  In time, no more than two months, a thaw descended over the Hôtel de Noailles with a conciliatory agreement reached where both sides felt compromise justified the decision. Marie Adrienne Francoise de Noailles knew nothing of her being the dangling reward, that her future had been decided, and she would be betrothed and married to a boy she had never met.

  Marie Adrienne Françoise de Noailles, soon to be the Marquise de La Fayette

  Voltaire reading his works at the salon of Madame Geoffrin

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  Part Two

  Mariage à la Carrefour (1773-1775)

  [Marriage to the Crossroad]

  1773

  In France: On 8 June 1773, the wife of the heir to the throne of France, the Dauphine, Marie Antoinette, made her first official appearance in Paris where the crowd of 50,000 cheered her. At the Tuileries before returning to Versailles she and the Dauphin walked a short distance among the pressing multitude, without fear.

  In America: The British Parliament’s Tea Act of 1773, a bill designed to grant a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade to save the faltering East India Company. In December of this year occurs the ‘Boston Tea Party’, where British tea is dumped into Boston Harbor by colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians. Incensed, Parliament passes the Intolerable Acts, imposing British military rule in Massachusetts.

  In Philadelphia The Public Advertiser newspaper in September publishes a satirical essay titled ‘Rules By Which A Great Empire May be Reduced To A Small One’. The essay is written by colony representative Benjamin Franklin who, while still an agent of Pennsylvania in England, is moving away from his beliefs of accommodation with England and by the next year will be very anti-British government in attitude.

  19.

  EVEN THOUGH SUCH ACTION, the marriage contract, would alter his life forever, he was nonplussed as to the negotiations and final results, for his relatives had drilled into his mind his responsibility of duty
to the family name, to his father’s memory to carry such a name as La Fayette into another generation.

  Gilbert stood off to the side in the Luxembourg Palace apartment of his mother’s relatives. Present in these negotiations of the marriage contract were on one side, representatives of the D’Agguesseaus, the Noailles, and the other side, de Lusignems, the La Rivieres, the Lafayettes. The boy’s closest paternal relatives were his two aunts at Chavaniac, who had entrusted their voice to their cousin, Abbé de Murat and Gerard, the lawyer, who drew the documents. Various points of the wife’s dowry and the testiest of legal articles were bandied around towards a preliminary agreement (the final document would take four months to be finalized).

  Gilbert looked on the discussions from a distant eye, a fatalism of his responsibility. His opinion was not sought and he did not ask to see a miniature or painting of his future bride. Not indifferent but of little importance, as marriage to him was a requirement to his station and he was prepared to accept the direction of his relatives and counselors.

  One could say of him, duty was the highest form of the soldier’s code and Gilbert wished to adhere to such regulation. Within this windstorm of all decision making taken from him what was replaced was an overwhelming feeling of awe knowing that he would move into the Noailles camp and his star fastened to their star ascendency power, represented by his new ‘grandfather’, the old Marshal of France; and that of his future father-in-law, Duc d’Ayen, both favored in the army and in court, both who knew the politics of Versailles, from which all nobility looked towards for recognition and reward. Gilbert was not dimwitted to his good fortune in this match for he conceded to himself his future in the army and advancement in the chain of command was assured. Was that not indeed what he had wished since a babe holding a wooden sword? He only had to comply with diligence to his future ‘father’s’ expectations for he would be seen in public as the ‘adopted son’ of the Duc d’Ayen . Gilbert felt the inner surge of being somebody, more so of seeing a rosy future so possible, that he certainly could undertake his first step to his quest for glory; all he had to do was give vows in a church and take a young girl to the bridal bed. He could bear this. Duty was duty.

  The Duchess D’Ayen did have her say within the marital contract, reluctantly agreed to by her husband to maintain harmony within their own household. With the end goal of the marriage the paramount objective, the Duc could bend. The marriage, so she decreed, was not to become legal and church sanctified (the king had to likewise sign his approval to the marriage documents) until Adrienne’s fourteenth birthday when Gilbert would be sixteen. In the meantime, Gilbert would move into their other mansion de Noailles, situated near the court in Versailles, a condition the Duc immediately agreed to since the boy would come under his wing and direction since he more than his wife attended court functions. And after the wedding, the Duchess insisted, the married couple was to be ensconced at the Noailles residence in Paris for at least two years, the mother, not yet ready to sever the maternal tie as well hopeful that she might be in close proximity to the couple’s first child birthing.

  20.

  AND SO IT WAS THAT soon after the marriage contract was signed in February, 1773, Marquis Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette was conveyed over to the Hôtel de Noailles [House de Noailles), on Rue St. Honore, a well situated mansion backed up to the garden of the Tuileries and found himself in formal audience before the Duc and Duchess.

  He stood awkward in his usual silence, out of sorts, more truly tongue-tied to be in the presence of the great Noailles family, within their sphere. He knew, as example, from all the stories that were told, one of truth was that two years earlier the Duc’s uncle by the King’s order had been placed in charge of all the choreographed and intricate royal formalities in the handing over of Maria Antonia Josepha, Archduchess of Austria [Marie Antoinette], from Austria to France as the Dauphin’s bride. ‘The Noailles Family’, wrote one nobleman in his journal, ‘have reached the crest of grandeur by intriguing skillfully.’ Adrienne’s aunt, Anne, the Comtesse de Noailles, was currently the Mistress of the Household [Dame d’Honneur] for the court, specifically tasked to the Dauphine, and known contemptuously by Marie Antoinette’s crowd as ‘Madame Etiquette’.

  No wonder the boy felt less than adequate; he controlled wealth he could not see, and bore titles lost among the heralded ocean of entitled men and women, all more prominent in the court than he. And now, Gilbert, only a Marquis, would gain immediate stature, as he was to become one of them. Being overwhelmed with his new ‘parents’, he fell back into the protection of his silence, more in awe, more of a desire to understand how he could best impress the Duc of his value.

  The Duc was not so far impressed.

  The Duchess regarded the boy. True, he spoke only when spoken to, though a seeming show of respect to his seniors and betters left her to wonder to what personality lay below the façade. Boys could not long stay silent.

  Said the Duc d’Ayen rather stiffly, “I have decided that it best that you are moved over to the Noailles cavalry regiment from the Mousqueteers. Here you will have a better chance to distinguish yourself and I have enrolled you in the Académie de Versailles to improve upon your riding skills and to be among those of accomplishment where you might improve by their example. You will no longer attend the Collége du Plessis. Further, I have hired a retired military instructor, Colonel Margelay, to instruct you in tactics and military code.” From a silver box he sniffed at his snuff. “If that life is to be your career?” Less a question, more to the Duc, better the boy out of sight, out of mind.

  The Duchess could not help but see the smile rising to the Marquis’s face, not quite a grin, but in her husband’s decisions the boy seemed happy to accept and would hopefully, more importantly, to obey. She saw the smile as the first hint of cracks in his reserve.

  She asked of him, “What is the size of your staff that you will bring to Versailles?” He was not going to be housed here at the Hotel de Noailles in Paris, under the roof, where Adrienne resided; too dangerous a temptation among budding youth.

  “Madam, my cook attends upon me, and Monsieur Blasse, my grandfather’s valet, is now my man.” That was satisfactory to her; a boy of sparing needs would not overwhelm her household servants.”

  “I will let you have one of our servants when you are settled with us. After the marriage your household will gain a maidservant for Adrienne.”

  He nodded.

  She now placed her laws of propriety into effect.

  “As for my daughter Adrienne, and your wife-to-be, it has been agreed that she shall be left unaware of your future contract of marriage until I have determined the time appropriate. As to such social matters I would appreciate your pledge to avoid all communication between you both unless there is myself or a servant I designate in attendance, which I would expect to be only in rare occasions. Over the next year Adrienne must gain that confidence to manage her own household, being taught in subtle ways by myself that she shall not, when the time comes, find herself in sudden panic or doubt. All my daughters, monsieur, I have taught to be independent in thought and you must prepare yourself to expect a woman with opinions not a child with frivolities.”

  The Duc d’Ayen grimaced to how true he found such usurpation in his own family, where questions were raised, not acquiescence to what ought to be accepted as parental command without argument.

  Without any sense of warmth, the Duc ended the interview with the formality of this new added family member, seeing not a breathing soul with self-imagination but a chess piece moved upon the feudal playing board, less a pawn, more a knight with land and titles, very important for tithing into the Noailles strongbox.

  “Within the confines of our households you may address me now as your Papa as you have none, and Mama to my wife. Now, run along, make us proud that you are a Noailles.”

  Upon the boy’s departure, the Duc and Duchess both agreed that although the boy acted in puppet fashion to the semblance o
f nobility etiquette, lacking by their judgment as to what was expected in the refinement of the palace courtier. He must be improved upon, for within the French Court all rewards were to be derived and tenuous here lay the power and prestige of the Noailles clan. Such stature could not be put to the test by any ill actions from this 15 year old from Auvergne.

  “The country accent is still in his voice, and there is awkwardness in his mannerisms,” observed the Duc somewhat put out that he must now create a statue of fealty from raw clay. It was agreed that the Duchess would smooth over those edges that would refine him as a gentleman for a life in court, and the Duc would push hard to not have the boy embarrass the family as a soldier. They were set upon a hard path and by their planned curriculum Gilbert was to begin a new phase in his education, towards his maturity, whether he wished it or not.

  “We must educate this boy to his obligations,” intoned the Duc in sour finality to having undertaken an unpleasant task, “and do so at the earliest opportunity.”

  21.

  IT WAS IN THE HOLIDAY season near the end of the year when his life became more interesting. His guardians on the maternal side, his ‘aunt and uncle’, the Comte and Comtesse de Lusignem had put forth an invitation, more a pressure on him, Gilbert considered, to attend upon them and accompanying them to the theatre. Having nothing better to do he acquiesced, yet saying firmly he would wear his uniform, on that point he would be adamant. He had few social events where he could go out in public as a military officer, though low in grade.